02/12/2019

Speed kills. We know it, but while the 42 SARS deaths in the GTA in 2003 resulted in a massive political and medical response, the 42 deaths of Toronto cyclists and pedestrians in 2018 have been greeted with relative indifference, says CBC host and luminary, Michael Enright. Best to listen to him tell the story.

10/15/2018

This cycling tip could save your life: Look over your left shoulder before you change your position on the road.

You can be turning left, or turning right. You can be changing position in the road to go around a parked delivery truck or other obstacle. You can be changing position in the road as a part of a multi-lane shift.

Every time, check over your left shoulder.

Different programs have even branded the shoulder check. I'm a CAN-BIKE instructor, and the CAN-BIKE brand is the Lifesaving Shoulder Check (or LSC).

The LSC is a three-part package:

A shoulder check to see who or what is behind you, to hopefully make eye contact wit the motorist behind or at least cue the motorist behind that you are looking behind you before you do something.

The hand signal.

A SECOND shoulder check to ensure it is safe to change position, because circumstances behind a cyclist can change quickly, and the cyclist wants assurance that the negotiation to change position has been acknowledged.

The Cycling Into the Future program, delivered to many Grade 5 students in Waterloo Region, brands the package as the Signal Sandwich: the shoulder check is a slice of bread, the signal is the contents of the sandwich, and the second shoulder check is the second piece of bread.

The province of Ontario's Cycling Skills handbook just refers to Shoulder Checking and Signalling, but in boldface type says, "always shoulder check before signalling to make a turn, and, again, just before making the turn."

It would seem to be a no-brainer. After all, motorists always check their blind spots before changing their position on the road, right?

Sadly, not. Which leads to collisions.

Those kind of highway scrapes and bruises only damage vehicles. For cyclists, the damage can be much greater.

I regularly see both student cyclists and apparent road veterans who check over their shoulder once, signal and then begin to change position in the road.

Some are even changing position or turning as they use their hand signals.

10/03/2018

I am totally impressed with the management of Newport Towers at 550 Strasburg Road in Kitchener, whom (I believe) we are to thank for the three signs advising motorists not to park in the street's bicycle lane, presumably while the rehabilitation of the building's parking lot is ongoing.

I've been by this site off and on over the past week, and haven't seen any violators.

I wish it was this easy to get the point across to the average urban core motorist. I was walking along the new segregated bicycle lanes in Uptown Waterloo today and walked by a van, parked in the bicycle lane, as its operator queried the adjacent store owner about the wisdom of parking there.

"Oh," said the store owner, "you'll be all right, unless someone puts you up on social media."

Not my conversation, but I butted in anyway, with a cheery, "I happen to have my camera right here." (Although I didn't.)

To the store-owner's grunted comment about "cyclists", I replied, "Well, it is their space, after all."

And it occurred to me later, the obvious solution to a motorist wanting to stop to discharge a passenger or pick up a parcel, is to simply park in the street.

But that will block traffic, you might say. No problem, I reply, the traffic will just go around you. If cyclists can go around cars parked in bike lanes, surely motorists can steer around cars parked on the road.

They'll only be parked on the road for a moment. How could that inconvenience anyone?

09/25/2018

The Swiss have decided to do something that might sound almost astonishing to a North American audience: they've voted to enshrine cycling in their constitution.

(Just imagine the National Rifle Association and the League of American Bicyclists sharing time making their points with Congresspersons and Senators...)

In a Sunday referendum, nearly 75 per cent of the voters approved a resolution that makes Swiss federal authorities responsible of the promotion and support of Switzerland's cycling infrastructure, most notably, cycling paths. Something similar was done in 1979, when the responsibility for the support and development of footpaths was added to the constitution. Both decisions are a part of a larger initiative to promote multi-modal transportation, and reduce both congestion and auto-created pollution in the country.

The eight million Swiss own an estimated four million bicycles, so not surprising that there is strong support for cycling infrastructure improvements. And also not surprising, there is a growth in the sale of e-bikes, according to the European urban mobility website, Eltis.

09/23/2018

It's not often that The Waterloo Region Record devotes this much space to cycling.

In Saturday's paper and on the website are a front page photo and story opening, turning inside to almost three full pages of main story, photos, sidebar articles and graphics about our network of bicycle infrastructure, that, according to Record reporter Catherine Thompson, "looks more like a spilled bowl of noodles than a comprehensive transportation system."

The thrust of the piece was that people will ride their bicycles if they are not afraid of becoming a roadway casualty, and that the way to prevent roadway injury is to improve the bicycle infrastructure.

A missed opportunity in the package was the option offered by CAN-BIKE: that hesitant riders can become competent and confident riders through bicycle training (Full disclosure: I am a CAN-BIKE instructor).

CAN-BIKE is the recreational cycling training program offered through Cycling Canada.

Trainers like me help non-riders learn to ride, and help hesitant riders learn to ride in traffic. Why spend millions on bicycle lanes when you can spend thousands training people to use the roadway infrastructure that now exists?

And as Thompson noted in her article, every bike lane ends somewhere. A cyclist must use a roadway, likely more than one, to complete a journey. Best to learn now how to use those roadways effectively.

09/20/2018

Here's a teaser video to this Saturday's feature in the Waterloo Region Record that looks at the area's cycling infrastructure, and the interactions between cyclists and motorists.

It's written by Catherine Thompson, who puts her seat in the saddle to get up close and personal with the cycling scene.

And based on the teaser video, ya don't mess with Thompson, who shouts at a motorist who is cruising through the roundabout crosswalk that she is walking her bike through: "Jesus, you're supposed to stop!"